Northern Ireland's 31,000 A-Level students fared better than their counterparts in England and Wales, the latest exam results for the UK have shown.
More than three out of 10 Northern students achieved As in the final-year second-level exam compared to 23 per cent of students in England and Wales achieving the top grade.
In total, 31.2 per cent of Northern students attained As, an increase of 1.2 per cent from the previous year. In England and Wales, 22.8 per cent were awarded As, up 0.4 per cent from last year, illustrating that in the North, students continue to do better than in England and Wales.
Overall pass rates were up slightly in the North, from 97.4 per cent to 97.5 per cent.
As the debate opens in Britain on whether the A-Level exams are getting easier, Gavin Boyd, chief executive of the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, said allegations of "dumbing down" of exams annoyed him.
He believed exam results were improving because teachers and students were better prepared than in previous years. He said there was no evidence that exams were getting easier and people advocating changes in exams should exercise caution.
"Behind it all, I think there's some sort of generational jealousy," added Mr Boyd. "Old fogies like me don't like the fact that young people are now doing better."
Girls continued to perform better than boys, although the gap has narrowed. "The difference in overall performance at grades A to E has dropped from 0.8 per cent in 2004 to 0.6 per cent this year. And at the top A grades, while girls still have a significant lead on boys, this has been reduced by almost 1 percentage point this year to 3 per cent," said Mr Boyd.
Ulster Unionist education spokesman David McNarry said the results proved that "once again Northern Ireland has outperformed the rest of its counterparts in the United Kingdom" and that Northern Ireland had an excellent record in educational standards.
"However, more must be done to ensure that our young people are encouraged to stay in Northern Ireland," he said. "Too many students, especially those from a unionist background, leave Northern Ireland every year to study at English, Scottish and Welsh universities, never to return.
"The brain drain is robbing Northern Ireland of some of its brightest talent and . . . is a huge loss to Northern Ireland's economy."
SDLP education spokesman Dominic Bradley also rejected claims that exams were getting easier.
